


Summer Moon, Winter Sun

by Gnilnim27



Category: Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Curses, Developing Relationship, Dream Sex, Fairy Tales, Falling In Love, M/M, Magic, Male Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-04
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-20 07:06:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/582636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gnilnim27/pseuds/Gnilnim27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fantasy AU based Beauty and the Beast. Which Marcone being the said beast and Harry being Beauty... Almost anyway.</p><p>Once upon a time, in a land covered in snow, where spring never touched, where nothing grew and everything froze; there the winter queen hold strong and men bowed to her mercy...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Once upon a time, in a land covered in snow, where spring never touched, where nothing grew and everything froze; there the winter queen hold strong and men bowed to her mercy. There she and her kin ruled cold as the ice that covered the land’s lakes and rivers and harsh as the frost winds that howl through your soul. It was said; that she has ruled so long that warmth and freedom was as foreign a concept to her people as mortality and time is to the gods. 

But like all great power, it was to be challenged. It stare from an idea which grew from the believes of the desperate and the helpless, which gave birth to the Baron. A being, pushed by their determinations and powered by their dreams of a land free of the Ice Queen. This being turned into a man who lead a rebellion, a revolution of a fiery courage, blazing honour and fierce loyalty against the ice and the snow. 

For once, in the first time know to men, they were equal to the fay. The two powers clashed many a time, again and again, many perished from both sides, but neither relenting. The greatest battle, and the last battle flared in the Ice Queen’s keep as The Baron and his army stormed her hold. It came down to The Baron and the Ice Queen as they clashed wills and power, of fire, blood and ice. The Ice Queen fell, but last of her magic, she laid a curse on The Baron, turning the man and all loyal to him in to beast.

As the magic of the Ice Queen weakened, summer was able to once again reclaim the land, green the meadows and blossom the flowers, the balance between winter and summer was restored. But The Baron and his men, they lay dying among the among the darling buds, under the warm spring breeze. The Summer Queen was still a fay and nowhere near kind enough to save the beasts, for she and her kind did not know mortality as men do. However, she was grateful enough to offer the Baron and his people a gamble as all fay love a good game. She gave him a gift of an enchanted rose, if he could ever love truly and be truly loved in turn, he could break his curse for himself and all his subjects.  
Which one could take as hot beasty-”

“BOB! If you say one more word to Maggie I WILL SMASH YOU!” I yelled, waving the hammer threateningly. I turned my back for one moment, just one moment and already the damned skull was trying to taint my daughter’s 6-year-old innocents. 

“Daddy, don’t smash Bob. He was only telling me cause I asked,” my Maggie said, wide eyed in alarm, I deflated a little.

“You know, Maggie. There are some things that a little girl doesn’t need to know,” I said as I set the hammer down next to Bob so heard that his entire shelf shook, several books toppled and an ink jar threatened to spill. Bob’s jaws rattled.  
Maggie frowned at my action disapprovingly.

“The poor Baron,” Maggie said

“I know, hon. But bad things sometimes happen to good people,” I replied ( and I present to you exhibit A), Maggie looked backed at me broken hearted and I was filled with a sudden feeling of failure.

“Well, Maggie- Hon, I- It’s not- The world you see…,” I struggled to explain it in a way that wouldn’t scar her so early in her young green life, and obviously failing miserably when I heard the sound of hooves approaching.

“Oh, well, looks like Michael’s here!” I said a little desperately, somewhere in the bookshelves, Bob sniggered; I would just have to wait until Maggie left.

Right on cue, the shop door’s little bell rang as a bristled faced man entered, the door’s frame almost not fitting his broad stature. 

“Ready, Maggie?” he asked, 

“Michael!” she squealed, jumping out of our ratty arm chair in excitement.

“You ready for your first trip without your dad, Maggie?” he asked as he took her small hand in his, Maggie nodded her head enthusiastically. 

“Couldn’t stop talking about it,” I said as I handed Maggie’s bag to his free hand.

“Now, Maggie. Listen to Mr and Mrs Carpenter, when they say “No” you don’t do it, if you need anything ask the Mr or Mrs or Molly or Daniel, and always stay near a Carpenter,” I reminded as I walked them out the shop.

“I know, dad,” Maggie sighed, Michael smiled in amusement as she helped her into the impressive six horses carriage. 

“Always brush your teeth. And don’t talk to strangers!” I hollered into the carriage full of Carpenter children and my Maggie.

“Don’t worry, Harry. We’ll take care of Maggie!” Michael’s eldest boy said, from the driver’s seat of the carriage.

“Sure you don’t want to join us, Harry?” Charity asked as she wrestled Hope back into place, the rest of her children jostling and breaking out into giggling fits, the Carpenters had many children, I often wondered how did they manage, I was barely scrapping by with just one.

“Nah, I’ve got monsters to kill, potions to brew,” I said, the feeling of failure crept up on me again, I was actually kind of relieved that they were taking Maggie away for the weekend. That way I could work in peace without worrying who would cook her dinner if I got killed before sunset, or make that lust potion the Colberts’ wanted without worrying about Maggie being left alone too long with Bob. I could bring Bob down to the lab with me, but who’d watch Maggie? And Maggie being in the lab with me was a big no no. I was not only a failure but a pathetic failure, who depended on a morally ambiguous skull for babysitting. Aren’t I just the greatest father! 

“You take care of yourself, Harry,” she said seriously.

“May the gods watch over you, Harry,” Michael said as he took his seat beside his son.

“Bye-bye, daddy,” Maggie waved as they pulled out into the main street, we waved and waved until they were lost in the thick busy crowd with other carriages and carts.

* * * * * *

The country was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, I mean I’ve seen the country but not really. I mean, I saw it but I didn’t really manage to see it. Every time daddy brought me out with him, something bad happens and then I was too busy taking care of daddy to look at the flowers and grass and trees.

Daddy is so unlucky, he never gets to see the country. I’ll take some country back for him, he’ll like that. It has to be the best, there’s lots of pretty flowers here… but it’d have to be the prettiest of the prettiest. The air smells like wet dirt, green leaves and many many flowers, could I bring daddy some air back?

I looked left and right, north and south, east and west, I couldn’t see Mr or Mrs Carpenter, or Hope or Denial or Molly. Gods, I hope they’re alright.

The wind howled outside the castle’s walls as the rain beat down mercilessly against the tall glass windows; it was evenings like this that reminded me of the days of the old. It was mid-spring, but the castle always felt cold, a painful reminded of that damn fay, the turning of seasons to spring didn’t hurt any less, only states to remind us that we may have won but we also lost. I growled at the thought and watched as my breath fogged the rain spattered glass before me; it cleared leaving a reflection of the price I paid. No, we paid for victory.

The strong beat of wings with wet feathers, and the mostly silent land on back of an arm chair save for the almost soundless click of talons on wood, told me enough of who it was.

“Child in the rain, Marcone. Not far from the fort,” she said.

“Alone?”

“Yes.”

“Take Hendricks with you.”

The rain came suddenly, the thunder was loud, the lighting was pretty but I was mostly too busy trying to keep dry under some shrubs to admire them. Shrubs because daddy told me that lightning always strikes the highest point, the wind was really loud, it sounded kind of like Mouse when he was upset, it made me shiver… but that could be the rain too.

“Hello, child,” a woman said, I looked left and right, but all I saw was a hawk. “Come with me or you’ll die of the cold, if the cold doesn’t get you the wolves will,” the woman’s voice said again, I looked around searching for the woman, where could she be hiding? 

“Girl!” the hawk said, oh, the hawk is the woman! 

I tried not to stare, it was rude to stare, Mrs Carpenter told me so, but I couldn’t help it. Then a large dog pushed its way in, boy, was it a large dog, I thought mouse was big but this was bigger. The bird flapped its wings impatiently at the dog, “Get on him, girl,” she said with a tone that daddy only used when I did something bad, luckily I was so small or the doggie might not be able to carry me.

“Where are we going?” I asked, I didn’t mean to yell, Mrs Carpenter said it was rude to yell but the wind was just too loud, the Hawk didn’t answer and I worried that I had hurt her feeling. I said sorry but she still didn’t say anything, but I knew she must have heard me because she angled her eye to me as she perched on the dog’s huge head.

We walked a lot for a long time through the rain and it felt colder and colder. I must have fallen asleep because later I woke up still holding the giant dog near a fireplace many many many many times grander than Michael’s. There were fairies and fauns and nymphs on it’s arc and sides, I think there were more things above and around the fireplace but it was just too dark and the light wasn’t bright enough. I looked around me some more, there were some tall windows, but there was no moon… at least there was no more rain either. Somewhere in the shadows there were two green eyes like Mister’s but bigger, brighter and prettier.

“That’s close enough, kid,” a man said, I think it was a man, after Miss Hawk, I wasn’t sure.

“Hello, I’m Maggie,” I said, Mrs Carpenter said to always introduce yourself when meeting someone new.

“Hello, Maggie. Where are you from?” the man in the shadows said.

“I’m not allowed to talk to strangers,” I replied, I hope I didn’t make him made because I was rude.

“But you just did,” he responded. 

“Mrs Carpenter says to always introduce oneself when meeting someone for the first time, but daddy says not to talk to strangers,” I said, I didn’t know why, but shadowman kept me thinking about Mister, I think he was chucking at me, but it sounded a bit like a purr too.

I walked closer. “You’ll regret it, kid. It is in both our favour if you stay where you are.” The big dog was suddenly standing very near me.

“Are you afraid I’ll laugh at you? Cause I’m not like that, I promise,” I said as I crossed my heart with my finger and smiled the smile that usually got daddy to buy me cake or eat his dinner.

And I heard it again, the purr chuckle. “Oh, kid. I’m afraid that you’ll be afraid,” he said, he sounded like daddy when I told him I wanted to cook us dinner.

“Are you as scary as a minotaur or a ghoul or a vampire? Cause I’ve seen them all before and my daddy showed me how to kill them,” I answered, the big dog behind me made a sound that sounded like Mouse when he coughed. The pretty green eyes blinked, I blinked back.

“Your father brings you along? As he kills these things?” the shadowman said, I frowned, he sounded like Mrs Carpenter when she was upset with daddy.

“No…Not really, usually it’s an accident,” I replied, I know I was rude to say it in that tone, but it’s my daddy and my daddy is amazing, no one should talk about daddy that way. 

“An accident?” he sounded like he didn’t believe me, it disturbed me very much.

“My daddy’s a wizard, and he puts wards around me if something gets to us, he always ward me and wards our house. Always! My daddy’s good and he always wins!” I replied, I didn’t know how but my eyes and face were wet. Right, I somehow was crying. I tried to suck it in but my nose was runny, daddy never cried, and I should either, but I was.

It was quiet for a while, nothing but my nose sniffling, then suddenly the pretty green eyes moved, closer and closer and closer till I could see a big orange paw with big sharp claws, and an orange black stripped leg and bit by little bit, shadowman come into the light.

Shadowman was a great big tiger. He was big, big claws, big head, big teeth, big green eyes. “You look pretty,” I said and smiled, something wet came out of my nose, I sniffled.

* * * * * *

The night was ironically calm with the chirping of crickets, our iron hooves sounded penetratingly loud as we thundered through the quiet night under the moonless sky, the cold night air numbing its way through our cloths, flesh and bones.

“You sure it’s here, Harry?” Thomas asked as we pushed up hill, his handsome pale face that seemed to glow in the dark even though there was no light. 

“Positive!” I said, not stopping nor slowing down in my pace, to many, I looked like a man going if the rod, staff and dozen other magical things I had on my person was anything to go by. They wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

“Empty night, Harry! This is the fort! THE fort! ” Thomas said as if I ought to give a shit about it.

“I DON’T FUCKING CARE! The fort, THE fort! I’m getting my daughter back either way!!” I yelled, I was so tightly strung that I was in danger of setting the very horse I was riding, on fire. Michael, for the first time since I met him, didn’t bother to reprimand my cursing this time, he was guiltily silent through the entire journey. When he burst into the shop, haggard and broken hearted without my Maggie in tow, I knew, I instantly knew and my knees would have given way if I hadn’t been holding onto the lab table. 

We forced our way towards the dark silhouette of what looked like the remains of what must have once been a grand structure, now lying on its deathbed in ruins. It’s surrounding foliage, tall, dark and dense, it’s trees’ brunches seem to have to reach out like ghoul’s hands, the air thick with the stain of old magic. The closer we got the harder it was to control our horses. It soon became apparent that the animals were not going to take another step farther as my stallion reigned up in protest at being forced forward.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to hoof it,” I observed, unsaddling from my horse, who ran way almost immediately after. Thomas, a quick learner, gave his bridle to Michael to hold before getting down, he landed in something squishy, that clenched audibly with his every step. 

“Harry?” Michael said, an unvoiced question lay within the simple stating of my name.

“I need you here, Michael. If- If anything goes wrong, I’ll send Thomas down,” I replied, it was true, well mostly true, ok, partly true. 

Partly because I needed someone, I could count on. Not that I couldn’t count on Thomas, but I also needed someone I could count on who knew other people that I could count on, and the people that Thomas knew were…let’s just say they were of questionable integrity. Partly, a very small part, I was still a little angry and maybe a little more than a little, disappointed that Michael lost Maggie.

Michael nodded understandingly; I returned a nod of my own before joining Thomas trudging through the under growth as he slashed away with his saber. I had never seen foliage this- this thick, in fact it was so dense and wild that it practically had a personality of its own. After what felt like an eternity of hacking and slashing, my nerves were wearing my patients down and I exploded! Somewhere out there was my lost little girl, and here I was, stuck in these gods be damned fucking patch of vegetation. 

“Step to the side, Thomas,” I ordered as I raised my rod, Thomas eyes widened as he opened his mouth to say something, but ever he had to say was drowned out by the raging blast of fire that followed. The branches and shrubs burst into flames before us, but almost as fast as it burned, it grew back. And it grew back with a vengeance, thicker, tougher, taller and thornier that it had been before.

“What the FUCK?!!” I cursed, because seriously? Revengeful plants? Somewhere behind me Thomas sighed and started his hack and slash campaign again, I was so so angry!

“Knife?” my brother offered, handing me a medium lengthen blade, I glared at it and took it before slashing furiously at the enemy.

“You knew it wouldn’t have worked, Harry,” he said comfortingly as we slowly progressed on slashed shrub at a time. 

I didn’t reply, I knew only anger and nerves had got the better of me, vegetation should get less dense the higher the altitude, not the other way round. Now I just gave us more trouble that we had started out with, I was fuming, at the plants for being so gods damn thick, at the Carpenters for being so careless, at Maggie for talking to strangers, and at myself for not being a better father. 

“I should have gone with her,” I murmured, hacking down a brunch with more force than necessary. 

“Oh, Harry. You couldn’t have known,” Thomas said as the twisted a thorny brunch carefully.

“That’s not the point! The point is I should have been there! Instead, I was relieved! Relieved, Thomas! Can you believe that! I was fucking relieved to get a break from parenting!” I said as I hacked the most irritating bush in front of me so hard that bits of wood were sent splintering through the air.

“No one could blame you for catching your breath, ever since Susan- Well, she wouldn’t have blamed you either,” Thomas said in a tone of voice that almost sounded like pity.

I snorted inelegantly. “I loved Susan and she died, I love Maggie and now she’s gone too. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a pattern here,” I remarked bitterly as I swung my knife hard, the blade struck something hard, so hard the knife cracked and my wrist hurt. The audible clash of the unstoppable force and the immovable object was almost deafening in the silence.

“We seems that we struck gold, little brother,” Thomas said as he cut down the brunches around it to reveal a hard stone wall.

“Wonder which way’s the gate?” he asked, but I had already grabbed on to the nearest trusty looking creeper, fuck the gate, I didn’t have time for gates. 

Thomas raised an eyebrow at my for only but a second before he too was scaling the wall via creepers and the stone hedging, slinking up it effortlessly with a grace so cat like, even in his damp ridding coat and muddied leather boots, that Mister would have been envious. A different kind of feeling of failure dawned on me, I brushed it off and lift my body not so elegantly up the wall, what I lacked in style I could at least make up in- in perseverance, at the very least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really new with AO3, so can anybody tell me how to add lines into the text? Or give me any tips on customizing the text? Can I change the font? How do I make it the words Italic?


	2. Chapter 2

Anger was a very powerful thing, but fear can sometimes be just as powerful, coupled and the results can be rather explosive if the dull bangs that echoed throughout the castle were anything to go by. The idiot must be blasting every close door he came across, a small part of me was actually grateful that the fay’s castle was so durable, it was built to win stand invading armies after all.

“Still think this is a good idea?” Gard asked.

“You have a better one?” I retorted.

The large double door burst inwards with a force as powerful as it sound, sending centuries worth of debris scattered into the air, for a brief moment all vision was obscured by dust and smoke, the lack of flying splinters proved that the door likely survived. The only thing I could make out was the form of a dark human male. I sat as still as possible, Gard had flown down from her perch on the mental piece immediately as the door was violated, she stood still and guarded, chances are this man didn’t even know what he would be confronting. Few did.

The moon had just only escaped the thick clouds as the dust slowly settled, revelling a tall man in a dark duster, the moon casted sharp slits of cold sliver light through the high windows that made the larger falling pieces of dirt glow like winter snow around him. There was something about this man, aside from the anger and desperation; there was also a great deal of raw power. It hummed through the room like an ancient song, crackling the air around him. And it filled me with something that I had almost forgotten, hope. I squashed it; it was never good to hope, hope could hurt.

We stayed in the shadows. To the man all he could see were probably two sets of oddly coloured, oddly placed eyes.

“Where is she?” he demanded, voice raw with all the shouting. It drew my mind to places that I shouldn’t be going with the threat so blatantly close. On the surface, I was staring back impassively as the wizard raised his rod again, his stance showing that he was a second from blasting blindly into the shadows.

“You sure that’s wise?” I asked him, at the very moment a voice shouted a breathless, “Harry, don’t!”.

“Deep breaths, Harry,” said the new arrival who was having trouble catching a breath himself, his dark hair and pale skin seem to give him other worldly appearance under the glow of the moonlight. I felt my hackles rise, the wizard maybe potentially the most damaging, but the other was certainly the most disturbing. 

The wizard scrunched his eyes shut and drew a deep breath but didn’t lower his weapon. “My daughter now, or you will regret it.”

“Your daughter is safe, her safety is guaranteed…for the time being,” I replied calmly, I needed to rein him in and I couldn’t rush it as much as the beast in me wanted to go in for the kill.

“You kidnapped her! You son of a bitch!” he yelled, and there it was, all the anger boiling over again. It was… interesting, almost entertaining to watch, it if weren’t also deadly.

I scoffed at the curse, if he only knew who or what he was talking to, the irony of it. “We found her, if it weren’t so, your precious child would be a popsicle by now at best.”

The wizard was about to say something, something angry or accusing no doubt by his expression, but was cut off by the other man. 

“We are very grateful, but we’re going to take her home now,” he said, his tone, despite they softness in his features for firm and final.

“What will you trade for her?” I asked and this time not only the wizard but his companion too bristled. 

The wizard’s friend drew his blade with admirable efficiency. Gard shifted and spread her wings, they unfurnished to a grand scale of 6 feet. The air was thick with nerves, more from the wizard’s party than mine.

“I found her, you had lost her and I found her. Does this not apply in the rule of fay and magic?” I said, you don’t get stuck for centuries in magically cursed place and learn nothing.

“What do you want?” the wizard Harry asked, the angry flush on his face actually did him some good.

“I want you, Harry,” I had been waiting to say it and Harry did not disappoint, several emotions ran across his face anger, shock, confusion, suspicion and shock again before he seem to mash it all and tried, and failed , to look neutral. I could smell the bewilderment rolling off him.

“What for?” he asked slowly, cautious and thick with distrust, his eyes narrowed. 

“Would it matter?” I countered. If Harry loved his daughter as much as the little girl had been gushing about, it shouldn’t. “From what I gather, you’ll do anything for Maggie.” 

“You gather right, that includes burning you into a crisp,” he said sarcastically with a forced smile which made him look lightly maniacal. 

“Kill me and you’ll never find her,” I replied deadpan.

“I can find her just fine on my own!”

“Not in here you won’t.”

“I will tear down the walls brick by brick if I have to. Do not underestimate me. I know curses that’ll make you wish you wish you were never born!” he said venomously, and a little childishly, one might add.

“Oh, I’ll already feel that on a daily basis. I doubt that you can make me feel any worst.”

“Will you take me?” his saber wielding companion said suddenly, sounding so sincere that the both of us stopped our shouting match, a shouting match for Dresden at least, to stare at him.

“Wouldn’t hold up,” I shot at the man, just as Harry murmured the same thing, he was pinching the bridge of his nose. It seem like the man had come to his decision, good. “Harry?” I addressed the wizard, who seem to be very much caught up in his own head at the moment. 

“That’s Mr DRESDEN TO YOU!” he snapped, I raised an eyebrow- or in my case the arc of what would have been my eyebrow if I were human, not that that mattered much since I was still considerable hidden in the shadows.

“Well, Mr Dresden. Just say the words and you will have her,” I persuaded, I could see that a huge internal conflict was waging within Harry, his jaw gritting and eyes glaring so hard that lesser men would have been taken aback.

After a moment, he said, “I wanna see her.”

“Sorry, Dresden. But I don’t trust you not to grab her and run for it the minute she’s here… But as I’ve said, I guarantee that she is safe and whole.”

The wizard cursed, his scent screaming rage and frustration. 

“Alright, can I see you?” he asked, it came out more like a curse then a question, angry and vindictive.  
Gard looked at me, I nodded and she lowered her wings. I strode out into the moonlight head held high as I pulled myself up to my full height on all fours, which was a good seven feet, they don’t call me a beast for nothing.  
Dresden and his companion instinctively gripped their weapons tighter. Around me, in the shadows, my people shifted in their various forms, alert and ready to kill. 

“Well, Dresden? How about it?” I asked, challenge in my voice as I used my much larger size to loom over him, casting a dark shadow over him with my form. The wizard, true to Maggie’s words, was unfazed. In fact, he looked irritated. 

“I’ll do it,” he practically spat out. His companion murmured something low to Dresden’s ear. The wizard merely shook his head and stared hard at me.

“Sorry?” I said because I wanted to annoy him and I need him to say the words, but mostly to annoy him.

“I Harry Copperfield Blackstone Dresden, will myself to-,”  
“John Marcone.”

“To John- ,” a double take form the wizard, but he continued a beat later, “To John Marcone, in exchange for the safe return of Margaret Angelica Dresden.”

There was a shift in the air, subtle but detectable, like the universe had taken note that a score was being settled and was now entering it into the books. I turned to Gard for confirmation, she nodded and a second later she took flight for Hendricks and the girl.

 

* * * * * *

 

Maggie came down the stairs ridding a monster of a hound that as at least as big as Mouse if not bigger, if I hadn’t been so relieved to see that she was alright, I would have been worried. Actually no, I was still worried, only less worried and more relieved and a lot lot more frustrated.

“Daddy!” she screamed as she hopped down the hound and ran into my arms so hard that she nearly knocked me over, I had to kneel down quickly or risk bing thrown backwards.

“Woe, take at easy, hon,” I said, a sudden tightness that I didn’t know I had seem to lift from my chest as I felt those little arms wrapped themselves tightly around my neck. 

“Did you eat dinner, daddy? You feel cold,” she observed with a frown as she pushed off my chest and placed her small hands on either side of my face.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, sure I did. Did you?” I replied trying for casualness but my voice sounded too tight even to my own ears, from over Maggie’s shoulder I thought I saw the hound shot a sharp glare at the tiger. Hmm, odd.

“Yup, Nate made sure I eat. It was nice. Will we be going home now?” she said, half of me was wondering who was Nate? What did he feed my girl? And how to fucking kill this guy?! The other half was wondering how to tell my Maggie that I couldn’t go back with he now, and that she need not worry because I’d be home to her soon.. .After I figure out how to KILL THESE SONS OF A BITCH!!!  
I was deciding the best way to convey both things when John spoke up. 

“Maggie, you father is going to stay here to help us,” he said, and the bastard actually made it sound real and noble. I glared daggers up at him from my place on the floor.

“How long are we staying?” Maggie asked as she turn to face the mammoth of a tiger without so much as a flicker of fear, Maggie it seemed had the misfortune of inheriting the infamous ‘stupidly brave’ gen also known as ‘the suicidal’ gen, a specialty of the Dresden linage. I sighed inwardly, what did I expect, this was the little tod that attempted to beat a minotaur, a hundred times her size, off from crushing her father with her wooden toy sword. And got it in the eye too.

John the tiger (apparently, tigers liked plain exotic names like John), shook his head at her with what would have passed as adoration if it were human, but since it weren’t human, it couldn’t be.

“No, Maggie. You’re going home. Your dad’s staying for a while,” he said in a tone that almost sounded indulging. I glared harder.

“But who will look after him. Daddy’s very bad at it,” she replied in dismay, her small hands gestured at me as if to emphasize the point of me as a poorly whole human adult.

“We will. We will look after Harry, Miss Dresden,” a voice rumbled suddenly, and I was shocked to realize that had some from the great dog.

Maggie turned to the hound with her hands on her hips. “Daddy is very hard to care for you know,” she said, from the corner of my eye, I saw Thomas’s eyes widen, the anger was still there but it was mixed with surprise now, an odd look even for him. “Promise he eats, daddy never eats enough,” she said and to my surprise, she hugged the thing. I wasn’t sure if I could glare any harder, but it definitely felt like I was, if the prickling behind my eyeballs was anything to go by.

Then she turned to the tiger and hugged it too, my jaw dropped, behind me Thomas made a strangled noise. John Marcone the tiger seem to smirk at my reaction. 

“Maggie, go with uncle Thomas,” I said through gritted teeth, Maggie turned back to me in confusion but when to Thomas’s side anyway, good girl. “Thomas, please take her to the Carpenters, and make sure Mouse and Mister get feed and exercised.”

“What do you want me to tell Michael?” Thomas asked, eyes silently begging me to have a back-up plan, I didn’t.  
I shrugged and said, “Tell him that I probably won’t be paying him back the money I borrowed anytime soon.” 

Thomas stared at me, eyebrows raised, than slowly he nodded. “Let’s get you home, Maggie,” he said as he took hold of her hand, to anyone else he seemed indifferent about it, but I wasn’t just anyone else. I was his brother, and just from the way his eyes when carefully blank and cold, I could tell he was barely holding the anger in and probably wouldn’t have if Maggie wasn’t there. 

“Bye bye, daddy,” Maggie waved, her eyes were wet but the kid was yet to shed a tear, I won’t sure how I felt about that. On one hand, I had tried not to cry in front of her and if she ever caught me, I’d never admit it... I was a grown man for god sake! On the other hand, I didn’t want to encourage supressing emotions…

I smiled at her encouragingly (or at least I hoped it was encouraging, for all I knew it probably looked twisted and broken and I’ve scared my daughter for life) till she disappeared down the corridor.

Once I was sure that both Thomas and her was a good distance away, I stood up, turned to my captors and said, “Ok, let’s get over with it!” 

Marcone looked back at me impassively for a good whole minute before he spoke, “Hendricks, show Mr Dresden to his room.”  
The hound Maggie had rode down on turned and started to walk up the stairs, apparently, the hound was called Hendricks and apparently, I was to follow it.

“I’m not going anywhere!” I protested, but Marcone and his bird were already walking away from me, or flapping for the bird.  
The tiger paused, his bird hovered and threw me a look, “You can either go with Hendricks, or you can stay here… I would go with Hendricks if I were you, its warmer,” he said and without even a backward glance just kept on walking.

I glared at his orange black stripped tail and ass, and his stupid secretary hawk bird. Something warm and fuzzy bumped my body and suddenly I was being lifted up in the air.

“What the fuck?!” I said as the fucking hound had tucked his head under my right arm and nudged me onto his back so fast that it was almost brutal as I landed awkwardly on his back.

“Mr Dresden, if you would please,” he said as if he had extended me some kind of courtesy. 

“Put me down or I’ll blast you to bits!” I demanded, oh, gods did I sound like a damsel in distress, it was embarrassing.  
Something that sounded an awfully lot like a snort rumbled from the dog, it was right, he didn’t actually do anything yet and Maggie seemed to like him… but then again Maggie also seemed to like Marcone…

I straighten myself up and rode the dog… No, I can’t- I just can’t- I straighten up and sat on an unstable moving thing as it communed me to it designated destination. Ya, that’s better. 

The dog took me through some badly lit hallways, illuminated by candles that looked like they had be been burning for ever but never burnt out, too little wax to burn and too much malted, the wax seemed to keep malting and rolling down the stubs but never quiet dripping off. It was odd and more than a little disturbing. 

The candle lights kept flickering even thought there was not even the hint of a breeze, casting shifting shadows on the walls, in some places I swear that I saw things move about in the darkness. They were careful about it, I’d give them that, probably would have even noticed if I weren’t looking out for them. 

“Only the three of you here?” I asked conversationally, eyeing the dust covered paintings; they were a lot of them, all depicting the same women, a fay.

The dog chuckled under me (it would sound so wrong if it were an actually non-magic, non-talking dog). “What do you think?” he asked, idly, I wondered if those intricate carvings on the pillars and arcs that depicted people were actually carvings… if they weren’t it wouldn’t be a first.

After several turns, we came to a stop and it more or less unceremoniously bumped me off its back. “Your room, Mr Dresden,” Hendricks said.

“Huh. Not the dungeon then?” I remarked as I was greeted with the sight of a well-adorned mahogany door.

“There is a rope inside, if you need anything, pull it. It rings a bell. Wonder at your own risk,” he said, I nodded and he stared back. I waited and he stood where he was, I cleared my throat, he blinked. Finally, when it became apparent that he wasn’t leaving anytime soon, I put my and on the surprisingly well kept door handle and turned. 

The room was poorly lit and had cold hard stone for the floor, much like the rest of the house; thankfully, the said floor was covered with several fur rugs of the hide of various species. There was a four-poster bed as large as my entire laboratory, a chest at its foot and in the corner stood an honest to gods bathtub. The steams from its hot water beckoned to me like a siren song.

A brief once over with Sight told me that there was no magic in it, I didn’t know about poison but… Oh, fuck it. I was cold and tired and if they wanted to kill me, than at least I’d die warm. And with that I stripped and entered the tub, the warm water was heaven, scratch that, I’ve just spent 6 hours tracking through a fucking enchanted woods, aches and pains that I hadn’t realized I had were making themselves known to me and the warm water was working miracles. 

I soaked until the water was lukewarm before climbing out, still no ill effects... yet, for a moment I debated if I should wear my shirt back, but upon closer inspection I thought better of it and went to bed as I was, ala natural.

I had planned on spending a good amount of time hatching a plane as I lay in bed but the bath had been relaxing, the sheets were unexpectedly clean and soft, sleep enveloped me almost instantly. Barely a day spent here and already things were not going to according to my plan non-plan, damn it!

Sleep was anything but peaceful, it started with Maggie in my lab, and she was mixing and brewing something at the table. I was so angry, what if she had gotten poisoned or the experiment had reacted badly and blew up in her face and I told her so. One minute I was lecturing her on personal safety and the hazards of dad’s lab, next I was meowing and discovered that I was a cat and Mouse had taken to chase me on our roof, how did we get to the roof I had no idea.

Suddenly I was in the darkness of the bedchamber, but everything looked darker. A man stood at the foot of my bed, I couldn’t see his face clearly, too much dark not enough light, but from the dancing shadows, I could make out the hard lines of a well-built body. 

A rough hand reached out and caressed my ankle, sliding up firmly to stoke the inside of my thigh. It moved to rub gently at the bone of my hip briefly before sliding my cock, giving my organ a few firm strokes to hardness. I swallowed; suddenly everything was getting too hot, too hard to breath, and way too fast. I didn’t know what to do with my hands, I ended up clutching the sheets hard enough to rip and bit my lower lip as the hand on my cock quicken pace, twisting and thumbing my slit, smearing pre-cum all over as I trusted up into a tighter, slicker hold. 

I trust my head back and my hips up, I was so turned on and it had been so long, too long since, I started raising Maggie on my own. When I looked down, I saw sharp green eyes pin me through the dark shadows as warmth enveloped my cock and suddenly all I knew was warm wet beautiful suction. 

There was a wanton moan, and it was loud, and I was embarrassedly aware that came from my very lips as my breath was literally being sucked out of me as a sinfully skilled tongue worked on my engorged organ. A finger was circling my hole, at any sane moment I would have squirmed away from something this unorthodox for me, but I was clearly insane because I was splaying my legs even wider apart and pushing harder down on the finger. The finger penetrated me and I was fucking myself onto in earnest, panting heavily as I did. 

I was so ready, the perfect warmth of mouth and tongue, the finger crooking and rubbing all the right places in my ass, the occasional tug of my balls. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, where rationality still resides, I knew that this couldn’t be natural, it was too fucking good. I had to get it together but my body was no longer cooperating with my brain. 

It took a fuck load of will power and magic to force myself awake. My eyes snapped opened as I gasped, hard and twisted among the bed sheets. My hole ached for the phantom finger that had filled it, and my dick throbbed almost painfully, I was so fucking hard. 

I tentatively gripped it and stroked, and tried to think about Murphy, her blonde head bobbing up and down my cock but it didn’t quite work, I changed the grip on my cock and I tried Lara, not a big fan of her but that woman was hot. Lara morphed into Ramirez, and I was finally getting somewhere, I tightened my grip and spread my legs, speeding up my strokes. 

I panted harder as nearing my climax, my hips trusting faster into the fist of one hand and the other playing with my balls. And I orgasmed with my finger circling my hole, piercing green eyes filling my vision as I spurted warm cum over my fingers.

 

* * * * * *

 

“How is he?” I asked, Gard stretched her wings on her perch at the open window, briefly blocking out the late day sunlight.

“He spent 15 minutes inspecting the bath, before he found it.”

“How’s the pillow?”

“Burned.”

“The bed?”

“Mostly intact.”

“Give him a new pillow.”

“With the charms in it?”

“With the charms.”

“That’s going to be a lot of pillows.” 

“Thank goodness than that we have lots of unused bed chambers,” I said to Gard who was staring back impassively. What was the saying, once you fail, try, try, try again?

A moment later, the heavy doors of the main hall (the only place in the castle which was decently warm with our having to wear a fuck load of layers because it had the largest fireplace) opened. Hendricks entered and greeted me with a nod, followed by an annoyed looking Dresden, or maybe annoyed was his default look…

“What do you want from me?” he asked, not wasting anytime and if anything, after a night of warm bath and bed, the wizard actually sounded like he hated me more now. Within the 15 minutes of meeting him, I knew I could depend on Dresden’s face to cue me in on this thoughts and moods. And right now he was looking at me suspiciously and not just any kind of suspicion, it was the kind that told me that he was very very close in figuring it all out but for some reason he still hasn’t yet. 

Maybe it was the shock of the revelation, maybe it was the disbelieve of the theory, whichever it was, Dresden was looking at me like the way a city guard might look at a suspect as they mull over the idea that this might be that serial killer. 

“I need your help,” I said slowly like that way one would when speaking to a child or when talking down a hostage situation. 

“Yeah, right. And why would I do that?” he shot back, this man was either very brave or very stupid, I felt the sides of my lips tug up involuntarily. It was a novel experience; too few dared to speak to me that way, and the few who had weren’t showed the generosity that I was extending to Dresden.

“Because if you do, we will let you go home,” I said, the wizard looked at me conflicted, clearly he was revisiting whatever theory of me that he had earlier and was wondering if this was all one elaborate ploy. 

“What is it exactly that you expect me to do?” he asked warily.

“I’ m sure that you can tell that we’re cursed. I need you to lift it,” I said, Dresden frowned, I knew he was using Sight and probably didn’t like what he saw.

“This is old, old magic. I can try but no guarantees, but to even do anything I need to get stuff from my home,” he said, I smirked, A+ to Harry Dresden for trying.

“Gard will escort you,” I said and Dresden looked disappointed but not completely, put off just yet, I could see the gears in his head turning, already formulating a new plan.

“If you must…,” he said, sounding annoyed.

“Yes, I fear must,” I replied, and Dresden rolled his eyes before trudging out of the hall, throwing a dirty look over his shoulder as Gard followed him out.

“Boss, what if he can’t lift it?” Hendricks asked, his tone deadpan to most but I could hear the underlining weariness in it.

“Well, I don’t plan to play fair,” I said, this earned me a disapproving look from Hendricks. I didn’t like it either, but not for the same reasons that Hendricks didn’t. I didn’t like the fact that Dresden was both my plan A and plan B, I was more depend on the wizard that I was comfortable with, being more depended meant being less in control and I hated that.

 

* * * * * *

 

Harry threw a pea at me, it hit my nose, he laughed, I frowned, Mrs Carpenter smacked his hand a little, and he cried. Harry Carpenter, the baby, not Harry my daddy. I hadn’t heard from daddy for days and days since he came with Miss Hawk.

Daddy asked me if I was ok, I told him of course I was ok, and asked him if he was ok. Daddy had looked a little sad but he smelled clean, so I guessed that Mr Dog had been caring for daddy like he said he would.

I didn’t ask daddy when he was coming home because he’s my daddy and he’s a wizard, he would come home one day, I’m very very sure. Plus, Mr Tiger promised. I hoped daddy could help Mr Tiger with his problem, Mr Tiger would probably be happier.  
Daddy had promised to write me very week and says that it will improve my writing skills, Miss Hawk promised to deliver our letters for us. Daddy very bad at writing letters, I can tell cause his sentences sound so odd together. Also daddy’s letters are very massy. 

“Maggie, sweetie, you wanna add anything?” Mrs Carpenter asked when Mr Carpenter finished his part of the prey of supper blessing to the gods.

“I miss Bob,” I said, I did. Bod was my best friend, the only person who doesn’t talk to me like I’m a kid. He tells me funny stories and watches me when daddy is too busy in his lab. I knew Bob forever; I asked daddy if I could have Bob, he said he needed Bob to help Mr Tiger…

“You want a skull but not your daddy?” Hope asked, Hope was my second best friend after Bob.  
I frowned confused, “Daddy goes away all the time and he always always comes back, Bob is different. He never left home before... ,” I said and for some reason the whole table burst out into laughter, except Hope who was now confused and little Harry who was trying to stick peas up his nose.

“That’s right, Maggie. Your daddy will come home, and when he does, he’ll be bringing Bob with him. Until then, you have Mouse and Mister,” Mr Carpenter said.

“I hope so… Daddy always tries to smash Bob when he’s cheeky,” I said, I hope daddy didn’t have too many hammers around him in the castle. And I hoped Bob did say anything rude to daddy.  
Everyone laughed again, and I still had no idea way.

 

* * * * * *

 

I was busy, hunched over and squinting at a spell book, which lay on top of another spell book that lay among a tornado of papers, scrolls and other books. Bob had been silent for days since he “turned into himself” in search of what type of curse it was, all the better for me because although I didn’t have a hammer with me, I still had a trusty lose bit of cobblestone (that I had only recently acquired) with arms reach.

There was a polite knock, I sighed, here we go again I thought.

“Mr Dresden, Boss extends an invitation to dinner,” Hendricks said, voice muffled by the closed door.  
Almost immediately Bob’s eyes flickered back from where ever he was prior. “Aww, boss. Say “Yes”, just this once,” he coos, I glared at him and reached for my cobblestone. “Oh, come on,” Bob said.

“This -This tiger, just won’t quit,” I murmured to myself as Hendricks’s polite knocked pervaded my room again. 

“Why don’t you go just this once, boss. At the very list, you’ll get to see how a tiger has its dinner,” Bob cajoled, a little too joyfully for my liking. 

I grinded my teeth for a moment before finally getting up, fuck it, if nothing than for a change of scenery during dinner. When I opened the door, Hendricks was just about to walk away.

“Your boss is fucking persistent I’d give you that,” I said, Hendricks was staring at me as if I grew a anther head, but he quickly recovered and merely did head tilt thong that all dogs were capable of doing, except on Hendricks it didn’t look nearly as cute and looked more like a “seriously?”.

Hendricks walked me down the corridor, it was as creepy as it always had been, one of the reasons why I tried not to venture out at night. What? I may fight big bad monsters for a living, it doesn’t mean I like it, in fact I’d rather avoid it unless it was threatening my personal safety or the safety of others.

When we arrived at the great hall, no elaborate long banquet table was laid out like I thought there would be, instead there was a small round table for two that sat neatly in a warm cosy corner near the fire place. Marcone who had been sitting, stood as I approached, a moment of surprised showed through before he carefully schooled back to a careful blankness. I smiled, he nodded his head towards a chair and smirked when I took it.

“What’s this?” I asked as I examined the unknown dish in front of me, it looked like some kind of vegetable soup, but it was cold. “Is it a dessert?” I asked, eating desserts first? A dessert mode out of vegetables none the less.

“Yes, Harry, it is what you thought it was, it is soup,” Marcone said, clearly I was amusing him, he didn’t sit in a chair because he was already just at the right height sitting on all fours without one, also they probably couldn’t find one that would fit him let alone hold his weight. 

“But it’s cold,” I said eyeing it speciously, hell if I every serve Maggie cold soup.

“It’s vichyssoise, chilled vegetable soup. It’s a good summer soup, try it,” he said as he took an elegant lick at it with his wide pink tongue. I spent a second too long starring at it before I shook it off as pure curiosity as to how a tiger could drink so neatly because the latter would me the possibility of me being attracted to Marcone. And that would be just weird because Marcone was a tiger for crying out loud, and that would imply bestiality. 

We made our way through the starter in silence, but at least it wasn’t an uncomfortable one. In the corner of my eye, I spied something creeping near the fireplace, it got nearer and near, till I couldn’t take it anymore and I begin to reach for my blasting rod. The thing jumped, and scattered.

“Dresden, don’t be rude. That’s my employee you’re aiming at,” Marcone said as I stared wide eyed as the thing, now that I had gotten a good look at it, it appeared to be a four-legged wooden cross between a bat and a trolley. 

“The fuck…?” I said as I watched it, gods, it was a fucking table, , it’s legs were strange shaped things with claws and was so stiff that it could only creep, flat back top with carvings on its edges to booth, on one side of it lay carvings of fine swirls that seem to make out a narrow wide sad face. It smiled at me tentatively, and was so stiff that even smiling look painful. 

It crept over to Marcone and thin ribbon of woodcarving unravelled from its patters, carefully taking the bowl away and placing it in its lower compartment before setting down a new dish. Then, to my horror, it crept over to me.

“Oh, no thanks. I can-,” I said but barely finished as the not-table begin to creek pathetically, so I let it do the same for me as it did for Marcone. I smiled at it encouragingly, when I looked up I found that Marcone was smiling, not smirking, but honest to gods, smiling. 

“What?” I asked, annoyed.

“You surprise me, Harry,” he replied as he used a very sharp very long claw to pick at his dish, and even managed to look civil doing it. I envied him.

“Well, everything else her surprises me. And its Dresden,” I said as I busied myself by trying to figure out which fork to use, it was either that or let my inquisitive mind question as to who, or more accurately, what cooks the food. He nodded but clearly still amused. Dinner passed in a companionable quietness, it was almost calm. So calm that my mind begin to wonder, did Marcone always dine alone? I hoped not, because it would be lonely if he did, not that to matter to me, I’m sure he has Hendricks. 

When I returned to my room, I was full and satisfied, not that they didn’t feed me if I refused to go down because they did, but somehow I felt tranquil in a way that must have something to do with the wine. It was certainly better than my usual.

I was so relaxed that I fell into bed immediately and almost fell asleep when I remembered something very very important. Sighing, I got up and checked the pillow, and there they were again. I burnt it.

“Woah, whoa boss. Calm down,” Bob said from the table. “It’s not like it’s the first time.” 

“Which is exactly why it pisses me off,” I said angrily, I didn’t know why but it stung extra this time.


	3. Chapter 3

Hendricks ran down the halls, the thunder rolling outside as he chased the thing down, with Gard flying overhead. It took a sharp sudden turn into a narrow corridor, at this, Hendricks brutal strength, which was so often his asset was now proving to be a liability as sharp corners and Hendricks weren’t the best of pals. He slid and almost hit into the wall, losing precious minutes. I maybe big but a cat’s built was very different, turns was what this body was made for. 

Overhead I could see Gard’s flying style shift to adapt to the sudden narrowing of space , there was barely a few inches between her wings and the stone walls, not easy for her either. And the low ceiling wasn’t helping, hawks aren’t meant to fly indoors. The weak candle lights burned loyally burned brighter as I sprinted down the dark corridor.

“In coming!!!” Gard yelled from above as glass piece shot at her, she twisted the wing just in time and it barely missed her by a crap of her feathers, and then the blasted thing was speeding my way. I ducked to a side, or at least as much to the side as the wall would allow, which wasn’t all that much. 

An explosion of china pervaded the air as the rose bowl shattered against the wall, bits of porcelain embedded themselves into my the top of my shoulder and my face. I only had a split second to register the stinging pain before a hear more objects flying through the air, it quickly had me moving as I ran, careful to keep by body close to the ground and head low. It was like a stalk, but fast paced, it probably looked odd as hell, but it was keeping my face save from being showered by more china.

We ran it down to an intersection, one was a stair way and the other was a turning down to another corridor. It made a turn down the corridor, but was suddenly backing away from it. As Gard and I caught up, we could see Hendricks barking and snarling like a bazark fight dog, sharp teeth drool and all. 

“Give it up, Helen. What do you think you could do if you do get outside?” I asked, the grey badger took several steps back, hissing as she backed away from Hendricks snarling teeth and Gard’s hovering talons. Her left front paw was stripped of its skin, red raw and bleeding. “Come on now,” I said, trying to reason with her, but deep down I knew she was gone and whatever this was, it wasn’t her. 

She seem to still and for a moment if seemed like she was about to give herself up, but like all things that seemed easy, it wasn’t. The crazy thing made a mad dash for the space between Hendricks and me, I grab her in my jaw and flung her into the wall.

She whimpered as her body came in hard contact with the stone wall, but she recovered quickly and launched at my neck. Hendricks was, unfortunately for her, faster and far more experienced in combat. He had slammed his shoulder into her chest even before she managed to get a foot near my vicinity. Hendricks pined her to the floor, there was a lot of muscle in him, to her it must have felt like being weight down by a brick wall. 

Gard hovered cautiously, as I approached the pinned badger, took one look at her and made my decision. I nudged Hendricks off gently and replaced his body with my paw, pressing down firmly; I could hear her wheezing laboriously. Then I leaned down, took her throat in my jaw and bit down. 

Her skin gave way like butter did to a knife as my fangs bared down on her, she trashed wildly under my grip. I bit down just a little harder and twist, there was the unmistakable sound of bones snapping, brittle and fragile to my fangs. And then nothing.

It took me a longer time than I would have liked to realise the hold I had on her neck. The smell of fresh kill thick in the air and the taste of her blood in my mouth, the bright red of it staining my fur and my face. I must have look as mad as she did. Outside the walls, the late summer storm roared with a vengeance. 

 

* * * * * *

 

I hadn’t seen Marcone for days, ever since that night Hendricks told me that he didn’t want to see me for dinner. I didn’t think much about it at first and had ritually burn my pillow before bed, everything had seem like just another day in a dark damp old castle, cracking my skull trying to figure out the best way to fix the curse. But it has been days, and Hendricks till hasn’t come to my room at all.

Tonight, I was done with waiting; I left my room and marched my way purposefully down to the hall where we usually had our dinner, only to find that it was empty. Hmm, oh well, just a good excuse to go exploring. 

Hendricks’s warning of “Wonder at your own risk” echoed somewhere in the back of my mind, I swatted it away as I would an annoying fly. 

It wasn’t as if I didn’t know the place at all, Marcone had given me a brief tour after dinner, where lead where which I was allowed to know and where lead where which I didn’t need to go. And the occasional few which were never explained to me, I decided that those places where exactly where I should start looking. 

I randomly choose one of such unexplained hallways and when with it, for a long while there was nothing unusual, just the creepy never melting out candles lighting the way as they did every else in the castle. Turning down the left brought me to an open air corridor with the castle’s trademark gothic arc windows, without the glass.

The air outside was nippy with the turning of autumn, pulling my coat tighter abound me, I briefly wondered if winter set in earlier at the fort-castle. Walking down the narrow corridor, I could look out over the fort walls, onto the spread of greenery, which was fast turning gold and red and farther still into my little town. It was beautiful, for a moment I was annoyed that I was placed in the part of the castle, which only allowed the view of a ruined wall. 

There was a sudden jerking movement from the corner of my eye, I ducked just in time as I brunch took a swing at my head, it missed my head but my arm took a good scraping. The fuck! Well, I suppose after enchanted furniture and talking animals, plants weren’t that far off of a stretch.

The said brunch turned out to be an extension belonging to a creeper plant on the other wall, its thin brunches were intertwined within themselves in what look eerily like the face of a man. The brunches against the wall shift and the face twisted in a way that seemed like it was screaming but no sound come out.

I lift my rod just as it raised its brunches like a smaller brunch version of the kraken. It struck, I blasted, except 

I miscalculated the force of my blast and overlooked the damp wet floor from last night’s rain. The blast pushed me backwards, it wouldn’t have the momentum it had if it weren’t so darn wet, I slid hard and fast.

And just like that, the combination of bad weather and bad judgement send me quiet literary flying out the window. I turned and fire a blast at the green ground below, hoping to slow the fall, but what do you know, the “green ground” turned out to be a layer of algae. I was fucked, I hit the water so hard that it winded me and I didn’t even have time to spare for last thoughts before everything when blank. 

 

I awoke and was immediately assured by my slightly aching body that I was truly alive and still in dire need of better judgments and less impulsiveness. I starched and found my bared skin was wrapped in a more than comfortable warmth of fur. Then I registered the warm steady breath against the top of my head, slowly I turned.

“Marcone?” I said, then winced, even the loudness of my own voice hurt my head. 

“Evidently so, Dresden,” he said careful to keep his voice down, his furry tiger face close to mine, in the poor light of the room I caught the sight of angry red scars against his amber stripped fur.

“Good gods, Marcone! What did you do?” I asked as I cautiously traced the scars through his fur, the scars didn’t look all that bad but the beast himself looked like shit. 

Marcone ducked his head and nudged my hand away, “I had- I was reminded how fragile we all are in this state,” he said, sounding a little distant and he was actually looking somewhere over my head that at my eyes, it was so unlike the John Marcone I came to know.

I slide my fingers through his fur and pulled his face down to mine, “John, I am your wizard. I need to know what’s really going on to help,” I said, bright green eyes bore into mine, and I was flooded with an uncomfortable sense of dejavu. I stomped it down.

After a long moment, when I was sure that he wasn’t going to give me anything, he spoke. “It’s started, Harry. I had to kill some close friends of mine. They- They are becoming restless. When it started, they merely forgot themselves but recently things- things have escalated,” he said as if it pained him greatly to admit this.

“And you’re wondering when it might be you?” I said, something twist in my gut, the thought of Marcone becoming this mindless animal, he may not be the nicest man but he was never a beast. He said nothing.

We lay like that in silence, my naked still slightly cold body under his warmth, in the heavy uncomfortable silence. Finally, I decided to tell him.

“I found a way,” I said, John looked surprised and a little bit annoyed, but before he could say anything I continued, “I promised you the best method, this is anything but the best method.”

“I’m listening,” he said, his tone carefully neutral but there was a spark in his eyes that wasn’t there before.

“It involves the blood of an innocent,” I said, it was something Bob and I had stumble on in our search through the less favourable alternative black magic. 

Immediately John darken, he shook his head and part of my was relived than he didn’t want it, the other part was worried. “Find another way,” he said. 

But what if there isn’t? I wanted to say, instead I nodded and let him bury his great head in my neck.

That night I slept on the charmed pillow, not because of any reason other than I choose to. There was something that I needed to be sure of, besides it would be just this once. 

 

* * * * * *

 

I was a thinking man, ideas and thoughts were constantly running through my head; about just how much time we had left, that Hendricks might be in love with Gard, the best way to keep the poor crazy bastards from causing too much damage. Right now, however, this man, this man who I thought I had pin down, preoccupied it. 

I eyed Harry thoughtfully, the wizard who was engrossed with his meal, looked back questioningly. He set down his fork and met my eyes, with eyes were as intense as they were when he faced battle, and I met him with equal measure. It was a dare and a challenge, and I never backed down from either before.

He was looking for something and I was trying to guess what he was looking for, he was examining me with the focus, which I often seen him give to his experiments, and I in turn was analyzing him the way I would a battlefield. 

His frown deepen, and I narrowed my eyes. Suddenly those hazel eyes widen, pupils dilating at the same time, I crooked a brow in indifference. He flushed, and I smirked in amusement. Thus, we are now certain of what we suspect. 

“More wine?” I asked casually, the wizard glared or at least tried to, but it came off looking more like a pout.  
He said nothing, but I had his glass refilled anyway.

After that dinner, he came to me more and more often, he came to me when he was tired of experimenting, when he was bored or when he just needed (as he claims) to hear another voice other than his skull’s. We talked about everything and nothing at all.

Once he came to me in the early evening as I was reading in the library, it amused him to no end as he watched me flick the pages of a book with my wide paw. In the end, he turned the pages for me as I translated the ancient war text aloud for Harry’s benefit. 

 

* * * * * *

 

I treasured our time. 

I lay near the warmth of the fire, nestled comfortably against soft fur, safe and sound from the cold weather outside. I ran a hand and kneed through the fur at strong muscles of John’s thick neck, laying against his side, it was peaceful but I wasn’t at peace. In some dark place in solitude of my mind, a storm was raging, a storm that was telling me that I was running out of time.

Marcone shifted under me, he was stiff and uncomfortable.

“Do you miss Maggie?” he asked, but I felt it more that I actually heard it, there was weirdness in his tone, which made me crane my neck to look his face. 

I had a bad feeling about where it was all heading, “I made a promise,” I said as I straightened up.

“I know, and you have given me more than I ever expected,” he said, still pointedly looking away from me.

“But not enough?” I said, it wasn’t a question.

“Sympathy isn’t love,” he replied, it sounded force, but it hurt anyway.

“Oh, you bastard. You fucking bastard! After all-,” I said, my voice cracking, I had intended to shout but I was hurting too much to, instead it sounded like I was cursing silently to myself. I took a deep breath. “I’m not giving up on you. I’ve never given up on anything and I’m not going to start now.”

John finally looked over his shoulder at me, but still not quiet meeting my eye. “What would you have me say to you, harry?” he asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. How about the truth?” I asked back sarcastically as I stood up aggravated, the slight rise in my voice sounded deafeningly loud.

John rose to face me head on, “The truth, Harry, is that I’m not very nice man. Truth is that I pave the way for the kind of mass that I’m in. Truth is I probably won’t be very much myself in the coming weeks and I rather you not be here to see it!” he said in a quiet harsh tone. 

I was fully prepared to argue this, anger boiling to full force when the son of a bitch pressed his furry head to the side of my face, and everything kind of fizzled off and died. 

“If you love me, Harry… you’ll do this for me,”

“What did I do wrong?” I said more to myself than to him, ‘what did I do wrong’, I really did wonder. It hurt to think that I wasn’t loving him enough and I fail.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing. You did more than I’ve ever- ever could have imagined. But I had you long enough, you should get back to the real world and let me be the very long dream you had,” Marcone said this so soft that it was almost a whisper, a little bit of affection, which I swear he was trying desperately to hide, bleed through his serious facade.

“If that’s what you want…,” I said, my voice was dry and scratchy, those five words felt like they were literary rip them out of my throat.

Marcone rubbed his head along my face to my neck as I wrapped my arms around his, it was the most intimate and sensuous I have ever felt him in this form. I slide a hand up his neck to his mouth and let him lick the palm of my hand, and as he pulled away from me, I silently promised to break a promise I made myself years ago.  


Outside the windows, the first snowfall came down on us.


	4. Chapter 4

The cold air burned with every breath I drew reminding me of just how real this all was. I had lost, I had gambled and I had lost, not only that I had gambled with what was not mine. It was time to give that back, at the very least my lost would be my own. 

“Don’t do this,” Hendricks said, Hendricks wasn’t one to beg, not in the past and certainly not now, but at this moment he was trying his hand at a plea. He had known me longer and better than anyone I’ve ever met. There was a sentiment that ran deep within us that was more than leader and follower, lacking for a better word…, I supposed that you could call us family. 

I sighed, my breath raising in a fog as I spoke, “You know that I’m not changing my mind no matter right?”

“I know, at least I tried,” he said sadly, his huge shoulders slouched in summation, in all the years we knew each other I had never seen Hendricks so broken, not during the long bitter war against Fays, not during our cursed life as beast. But he was now, and I wished I could say something of a comfort, but I also knew that when a comrade goes to his death, there is nothing to be said. 

“You could have asked Wizard Dresden to do it,” Gard spoke up as she arranged the ritual in the centre of the snow covered garden, she was indifferent as always but there was a hint of frustration in her voice. 

“I won’t ask him to do something like that!” I snapped, I normally wouldn’t have, it was a logical Gard-like suggestion and she was only doing what is was good at. 

“You won’t, or are you afraid he’d say no. If he loved you, he’d agree,” she said, I glared at her, the chilly wind around us picked us as if in tune to our tense emotions. I usual appreciated Gard’s brutal efficiency of “I only have your best interest in mind”, this was the one time that it annoyed me so. “You loving him more won’t break the curse, Marcone,” she added.

“No, it won’t. But too bad I already am,” I growled, I couldn’t help it but as Harry was trying to love me, I had learned to love him. Even if Harry did love me more, I wasn’t about to manipulate his feeling into treading his place for mine, the very thought of it repulsed me. 

“Let’s just get over with this,” I said, Gard looked at me thoughtfully.

 

* * * * * *

 

The winter wind blew so hard that it rattled the window; Michael stood from the table and secured it with a second makeshift lock, came back, sat down again and continued to stare grimly at me.

“So,” he said, it was just him and me across a table with a slightly chipped coffee pot between us, in his empty dining room with the occasional playful shout of the children from elsewhere in the house. “So, you’re really, seriously considering this?” he said as he refilled our cups.

“Yeah,” I said as I sipped my coffee, not really teasing it.

I snorted. “Yeah, a stupid human, who’s willing to run the risk of having his daughter orphaned just so he can save a man he barely knows,” I said.

Michael frowns, clearly disapproving this even more than the first. “If anything happened to Charity… I wouldn’t- You couldn’t imagine just what I’d do for her. Besides, you’ve spent a lot of time up there, I’d doubt that you ‘barely know’ the man,” he said reasonably, if I didn’t know Michael, I would have thought that he was trying to insinuate something with all those inverted comers. He wouldn’t be wrong… much.

I stared at him, he looked back at me, I broke. “I’m a terrible father!!!” I groaned, head in my hands, “I’ve barely been back a week and now I’m leaving!”

“You’ll come back,” Michael said optimistically.

I shot him glare, “You don’t know that!”

“You always do, and if you knew you wouldn’t, would t stop you from saving this guy?” he asked, and I groaned harder in frustration. Michael waited patiently until I had finished before speaking again, “You gonna tell Maggie?”

“Nope, if I play my cards right, I’ll be back before supper,” I said as I rose for my duster.

What does one say anyway? ‘Maggie, hon, you see, I love tiger Marcone very much you see…’ no way that would go down well, not the questioning that would come after, I’d probably scar her for life.

The walk from the Carpenter’s to the town’s lake took more time than I would have liked, not only because of the chilly weather but because it left me too much thinking time. What if I was too late? What if I don’t make it back? What if Maggie grows up to be as stupid as her dad? What if? What if? And suddenly I had arrived.

Well, here goes nothing. “Leanansidhe! Leanansidhe! Leanansidhe!” I shouted to the cold winter air, it was lonely and cold, there was no one about; the strong winds had chased most sane people in doors. 

“I thought you didn’t want to see me anymore?” a sultry voice said from behind me, I glared even thought I knew she couldn’t see me.

“I wanna make a deal with you,” I said, still not turning to face her, instead I stared pointedly at the snow covered tress framing the edge of the lake, not a creature in sight, looks like it was true about animals staying away from danger.

“And what can I do you for?” she asked, I felt a cold finger trace the back of my up turned collar to the side of my shoulder as the lady herself faced me. Small sly smile played across her blood red lips.

I crossed my arms against my chest in some sort of barrier between this unwelcomed intrusion and me. “I want you to break John Marcone’s curse,” I said.

“I can’t. Ask for something else,” she said, I stared at her, blinked several time then continued staring at her.

“Why?” I asked incredulously. 

“I’ve already dealt with him, I gave him time,” she replied, all calm as fuck.

“And in turn?”

“Humanity.” 

“Wha-,” and then it all clicked, “Oh. Oh, this is fucking rich! He thought he was treading his humanity for time, but you meant him and all his people! What do you even want with humanity? Not that you couldn’t use some, but seriously, what the fuck?!”

“Humanity is a powerful part of the human soul. Harry, he was asking me to delay a curse so powerful, one person would not have been enough. He knew what he was doing and he agreed!”

“Of course he would have agreed! He was fucking DYING! THEY ALL WERE!!! BECAUSE YOU FUCKING FAYS DON’T KNOW HOW TO TAKE A LOST!!! Still DOESN’T ANSWER WHY YOU WON’T LIFT IT!” I was screaming at the fairy, the stupid cunt, it was just too bad that I left my iron powder at the shop because I wanted to douse her serene face with it so so bad.

“Not that I won’t, I can’t. I would if I could, I still want your servitude,” she replies reasonably, clasping her hands together elegantly, and I just wanted to blast her to the atmosphere.

“Why? And don’t divert!” I demanded, I was so angry that I was no longer shouting, instead I was hissing at her through gritted teeth.

“Because his Mab’s now, your beast made a deal with Mab, his soul for his people’s freedom,” she said. It was like falling that icy cold water again, where everything was kind of numb and muted, and cold to the bone, except I couldn’t take the easy way out by blacking out and there was no Marcone to pull me out from drowning. 

“Oh, child,” she said her voice a bitter reminder of where I was and where I’m not. Cold hands wiped the tears from my cheeks, tears that I didn’t know I had, I looked at her to say something but nothing came. Was this how true love felt? Is this what poems mean by ‘love so bad it hurts to breath’? Cause gods, it was awful. 

“I loved him. I love him,” I finally managed to choke out; it was small and barely there, but the truest thing that I’ve ever said to anyone especially Leanansidhe, how ironic. Here I was, heart in my hands, laid bare to a fay who could never understand it, as the tears I cried freeze on my cheeks. 

“Not then you didn’t, it wasn’t love then,” she said, but it is now, and she was right, she usual is, and John was right, he saw right through me and it wasn’t what he wanted to see.

I was just too little, too late like the screw up I am.

“I can hold my deal with him a little longer. You can still make it if you go to Winter now, and steal your love back. But child, you must hurry,” she whispered into my ear, it was so tempting to agree unthinkingly, but I saw what that did to John and he wouldn’t want that of me.

“What do you want? And don’t play games with me,” I said, swallowing hard to fight my breaking voice as I slide my rod between us, pressing it against the side of her ribs.

She laughed like it all amused her, and it probably did, “Your servitude,” she said.

“I’ll do better, I’ll make you queen,” I said, I knew I was sounding a little psychotic, probably even looked it if Lea’s reaction was anything to go by.

She shook her head, “I don’t want you to die,” she said, her usual cold and detached calmness creaking slight as she gripped on to my arm.

“I’m bring John back, and I’m making you Queen, even if it kills me,” I said as I shook her off roughly and let myself through the gateway to Winter before she could stop me.

I found myself in a bare courtyard, hard cold ice ground crunched under my boots where I step, the gales seemed bitingly cold and harsher, I pulled my duster closer around me and did a double loop with my scarf. Trading slowly and carefully, I navigated the maze of what appeared to be a fay’s version of an ice garden, ice wall glistening with my reflection giving an eerie resembles to a house of mirror.

Then suddenly, I heard it, at first I thought that it could have been just the howling of the wind and almost dismissed it until I heard it again. This time I paused in my tracks and listen closely, yes, there it was, it was a roaring, hard, angry and hurt. I felt my heart caught in my throat again, but I quickly smashed it down, right now I couldn’t afford to fall to pieces. 

I ran toward it, mazes and wall be damned, I simply blast through every single obstacle as I went. It was a pretty effective strategy, than

I hit an ice carving of a ceantor, and it kind of went downhill from there on. The ice sculpture brought its reaghed hooves down hard onto the ground, I barely managed to jump out of its way and it come down again and again. Each time harder and faster than the last.

I wasn’t much for the physical but I knew that I head a brain and all it had was a ruin inscription. I had one or two choices, a) I could try to locate the ruin or spell and destroy it, challenging thing to do because it was moving so damn much or b) I could try to slid my way between his legs into the narrow opening behind him and run the risk of getting my ribs crushed. Since, I was racing against time, ‘b’ it was.

I had to get close enough and time it just precisely, time seemed to slow as I waited for it to crash down and rise up again, just as it rose, and the flecks of snow and ice were flying in the air by the impact, I raised my rod and fired off an blast at its head. It raighed almost all the way back as it clutched its shattered head, sharp pieces of broken ice shot everywhere, and every single thing was suddenly super detailed, from the creaks running down its face to its neck, to the ice smashing against the nearest wall. 

Than everything was fast again, I was sliding between its legs and scampering up madly as I navigated my way through the maze, more sculptures coming to life as I ran pass them. Dodging and firing as I went. Centours, fauns, even the occasional cubby curib was firing suddenly deadly ice arrows at me.

The roaring was getting louder and louder, and I knew I was getting closer. Did I think it could be a trap? Well, homicidal ice sculptures spoke for themselves right. Did it change anything? Hell, no.

I ran like I never had before, I ran so hard that my lungs were burning with exertion, and the cold air didn’t even register. If I survived this, my body was going to be wrecked, I thought as I leaped over a broken ice goat leg. 

I could see the bitch standing under an archway from here, she had Marcone chained by the neck like a fucking house pet, she looked surprised to see me. I slide, tumbled and it probably was history’s most inelegant landing ever, but it was effective, I came out of my role and immediately blasted her back.

 

* * * * * * 

 

Harry came literary tumbling into the circle, I was half scared to death that the idiot was going to break his neck, he proved me wrong, only getting up intact but he managed to take a hit at the fay all at the same time. I surged with pride, but was painfully aware that it all wouldn’t mean much if we died here.

I wanted to tell him to give it up and go home, go back to Maggie, that this didn’t matter, that what happens to me didn’t matter, that what matters was that happens to him. But all that came out was this pathetic animalistic roar, and Harry looking up at me with red rimmed eyes as if he had been crying. I couldn’t picture Harry crying, at the same time I could but this wasn’t the time nor place to dwell on it, I had to make sure he survived this. 

Harry reached for my collar and tried to make sense of it, you can’t break it, I wanted to say, it was old magic and I wasn’t sure if Harry knew what it stood for without that skull of his. Why did he come back? Oh, right because he’s Harry fucking Dresden.

“I made a promise,” he explained as if I had voiced my thoughts, I tried to shake his hands away but the wizard was nothing if not stubborn.

From the corner of my eye, I could see the fay getting up, one hand up and eyes concentrated, behind Dresden, a centaur with an ice javelin was taking a very serious aim at him. In that moment, I saw one or two ways this could go and was determined, that Harry should come out on top of this. 

I turned my head and used my shoulder to shove Harry out of the way, the javelin came down jut as the fay’s spell was surging forward missing harry by a mere split seconds, collided with the ice spear, the spell won. The blast so hard that several sculptures shattered into a million pieces in its wake. 

Harry on his feet instantly, both rods in hand as the fay and him sized each other up. 

“I will break you,” she said to me, soft and creepily gentle like a promise, “But before that, I’ll make you watch me break him,” she said, tilting her head at Dresden, I snarled. She tutted, waving a sharp finger at me and then I felt a magic so strong that it felt like my brain was on fire, it hurt to think of anything other than her and her voice.

“Kill him,” she said, and I did. The only thing I managed was to give Harry a pained roar before I was at him with no mercy, I tried to fight it but it hurt so bad I felt like death itself was upon me. 

He had to fight me, Mab, her army of ice statues and god knows what else, keep this up and he was going to run out of juice and get kill, probably by my own claws. I didn’t have much self-control, but I had enough to stop me from moving too fast after Harry, it was an odd experience, the body acting without permission and the mind painfully fighting it every step of the way. 

Harry shot one blast over his shoulder and used his other rod to burn Mab, I charged at him; he swung around and caught me between the eyes with his rod before backing a good distance away, causing me to growl angrily and take a step back. The very aware inner me nodded in approval. 

Mab was hitting his with everything she had, but she was spread too thinly by me and the animating her ice, Harry could match her blow for blow, but Mab was older and way more experience. Mab was buying her time, she was good at keeping reserves, to her it was a marathon and Harry was a hurdles kind of guy, with ever blast and spark of magic, she was wearing him out.

But I was John fucking Marcone and I was not about to go quietly into the night as I watch my enemy use me against my lover, so I pulled back against it, fighting as hard as I could. It hurt like a motherfucker, but the more I fought the more magic she was forced to use against me and the lest she had for Harry.

I tugged hard at the chains, part of it because of the order to kill Harry, mostly because I wanted to kill Mab. The hook in the ground creaked and it snapped, chains and all, at the same moment, Mab wrapped her magic around my mind stronger than ever before. It enfolded my awareness in a hot burning pain of fire that spread from my brain to my eyeballs, I was distantly aware that my eyes were bleeding and so were my ears as a sharp pitch sound filled my mind. 

I roared, it was so much pain that it was almost madness. I launched at Harry, and there wasn’t even a second thought, pinned him down and when straight for his neck.

I stopped, time stilled I. Could .Stop myself, and then I was aware that my head was hurting a little less, and I could on some level think. My fangs were, but I hair breath’s away from crushing Harry’s delicate neck. I could feel his warm breath against my face and almost feel his veins pulsing against the tip of my fangs, steady and calm. It was Harry, I realized, he was using a lot of his power to push Mab’s hold from me. 

I looked down at his brown eyes, even with my jaw full of blade sharp teeth still hovering over his neck, he was fearless, and I understood everything. I turned around so fast and hard that I knocked the fay behind me off balance, she raised her hand to shield herself but I was faster. 

Catching hold of her throat I crushed down, teeth slicing through soft flesh, the sculptures around us crumpled into mere ice fragments as she pulled her power back to use them against me, a crushing weight pushed against my chest and bones, hurt seized my every muscle as the fay beneath me chocked and gurgled in her own blood. Than her magic stopped, and it was only her body twitching under my teeth, and that stopped too. 

A drop of water hit my face, I looked up and realized the arch above us was melting, I turned to look at Dresden had struggled up to his feet and looked like death himself, but he was smiling. That would have been a good thing but I started burning, it was like my entire body was on fire, I roared and clawed at my body.

Somewhere to my left, Harry was trying to reassure me, he said what? It was normal?! Or was it “its gonna be ok”? I had no idea and frankly I was too tired and in too much pain to care, it felt like my skin was being flayed from me, sounds that were defiantly too beastly to by anyone’s but mine filled the air.

When I was begin to think that I was in for a long haul, it stopped and I could breathe again, I open my eyes (that I didn’t even recall closing) to the sight of a tired, pale, bruised and very much in awed with a slacked jaw Harry Dresden.

He gapped for a bit, then said, “Oh, wow,” before falling forward, every muscle in my being protested as I surged to catch the passed out wizard, I grimaced as he landed safely but none too gently in my arms.

I paused, and looked down at Harry, at his bruised face and split lip in my hands, hands I noted, I looked around round and found that we were in my palace courtyard. That it was still snowing, I was naked and very cold with a truly wiped out wizard in my arms.

I drew in a deep breath and decided to pull at the last of my reserves and shouted for the most reliable person I knew,“Hendricks!!!!!” 

 

* * * * * * 

 

The world came back to me in a vision full of soft blur edges and warmness enveloping my body, I blinked several times and stretched, and regretted it immediately, everything hurt like hell. 

“Don’t move,” a voice rumbled next to my ear, accompanied by a possessive grip around my waist, firm but careful not to hurt. 

My eyes widen, I turned around to face green eyes, a mass of dark slightly greying hair and a really good-looking face. “Oh, wow,” I said dumbly.

“You’ve said that already,” John replied, yes, it was definitely John Marcone, the same rough tone to his voice that made my toes curl and my cock harden slightly.

I shifted to get a real proper look at him, as I did I realized I was naked, he was naked, we were naked. Way to go Dresden, aren’t you fast on the up date. The blood was rushing to my cheeks, and I couldn’t help it. 

“You didn’t did you?” I said, vaguely aware that I sounded like a affronted virgin.

“Harry, you’re not the only one who got some beating,” John chuckled, and smiled, a honest to gods smile, not smirk, not the secretive 

“I know something you don’t” smile, but a real genuine smile on his handsome human face, with faint crinkles framing his green eyes. 

And I suddenly had the overwhelming urge to kiss him, so I did. 

I placed a chaste press of lips against his, than drew back, he was looking at me like he did when I first saw him in my dreams, heated and intense. I licked my lips nervously, he slid a hand into my hair and traced the seam of my lips with his tongue, licking and nipping gently. Then, I opened to him, his tongue slid against mine, warm and slick, he kissed like the way he probably concerned battlefields, aggressive, single minded and attentive.

I moaned around his into his mouth, I could feel the firmness of his cock against the side of my hip, his other hand slid under the covers, and between my thighs. I gasped, “Fuck,” it was one thing to do it in a dream, and another very different thing altogether in reality. My body was super sore, but Marcone’s hand felt so good on me as he thumbed my slit and kissed the side of my neck. 

I was really worn out by the fight, and I didn’t think that I’d last long. And from the way John was grinding against my hip and how wet he was, I didn’t think he did either. I didn’t do much, but spread my legs and let John work my shaft hard and fast, moaning and twisting at the covers.

He pumped my cock a couple more times and I was coming all over his hand, the sound from my throat was wanton and filthy, and if asked I’d never admit it. Then he jerked against me two, three more times and I felt him painted that hot sticky mass all over my side, groaning into my neck.

Than the door suddenly swung open and none other than my little girl came bounding in with a very tall, very broad, very distressed man hurrying after her. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to sink into the bed and hoped that the covers would sallow me.

“Hi daddy! Hi, John,” she said as she bounced into the bed with a feather in one hand, the bed where Marcone and I had sex in, I didn’t need a mirror to know that I was furiously red.

“Sorry, boss. She’s... very…very Dresden,” the red head, stonewall said, and oh, my gods.

“Oh, my gods, it’s you!” I said shocked, and come to think of it the feather Maggie had in her had looked awfully familiar. 

“You ok, daddy?” Maggie asked, she tapped the brown feather to my nose, I frowned at Hendricks.

“When-How?” I gapped at my little girl who had turned to wave the feather in Marcone’s face, John amused her good naturedly. I was shocked, added with more shock, John likes kids, I mean I kind of got that when he refused the blood sacrifice but he really seems to like Maggie.

“I sent Hendricks and Gard to pick her this morning,” John said, Hendricks himself had discreetly slipped out. “Figured that it was easier to bringer her here, than to make up excuses for your inability to make it to last night’s supper’.” 

“John says we can stay,” Maggie chirped, she was excited? 

“Really, Marcone? You go behind my back and charm my kid while I was out cold?” I asked, and we were living here? Wait. We’re living here?!

Marcone smiled, this time it was the sly one. “That’s entirely up to your father,” he replied, and Maggie turned her big brown eyes at me. Oh, how I hate him.

**Fin**  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Winter Sun, Balance Problem.


	5. Epilogue

**The Inside of a Rose**

Harry paused as he stared at the opened drawer, there resting above several leather bound books was a single stem of a desiccated rose with a few withered dark red petals clinging delicately to it. He had been looking for something, but now he can’t recall what it had been.

“Did you find it?” John asked, placing a soft kiss to the back of his neck.

“Is this- Is this what I think it?” he asked, frowning at the remains of the rose, its power longer, left with only the faintness lingering sense that it was once more than just a mere rose. Even now, its dried petals still held its brilliant wine red colour.

“It’s a relic,” he said as he wrapped his strong arms around Harry’s lean waist. “Probably should be throwing it out,” he added thoughtfully.

Harry snorted, “If you really wanted to get rid of it, you would have long ago. Not stick in in our dresser,” he retorted, leaning back into the firm body against his chest.

“It’s a trophy of sorts I guess, a reminded of what I survived and a reminded of the time when I thought I’d never find you… But a relic none the less,” Marcone replied, they both stood and stared at the rose, non-saying anything but both had too much to say.

Finally, Harry turns in his arms and kisses Marcone, too hard and harsh, nothing gentle about it, the older man let out a surprised sound before kissing back with equal measure. It was a battle, a clash of tongues and teeth, a display of strength and dominance, but at the same time it was desperate with a possessive edge to it. It was saying all that they couldn’t put in words, “I love you”, “I could never imagine life without you” and “I don’t ever want you to imagine life with out me.” 

A polite rap on the door forced them to part. “It’s time,” Thomas said, a cheeky tone in his voice, harry glared at the door as he tried to catch his breath and formulate a reply because apparently Marcone had sucked all his brain cells out.

“One moment,” Marcone replied, voice levelled and perfectly put together, not looking as if he had just been eating Harry’s face off. 

“Come on, Harry. We have a wedding to get to,” he said and seeming nonchalant about it even if he was half-hard in his pants and bruised kissed lips.

Harry took a deep breath to compose himself and straighten his jacket. “Right, what- what was it I was looking for?” he said, clearly he was still recovering from the assault and was now functioning on only half speed.

Marcone, the bastard, had the nerve to look smug, affectionate, but mostly smug as he leaned in to reach behind Harry, and Harry’s gods be damn treacherous body flushed as Marcone almost pressed up fully against him, almost touching but barely. 

“Your cuffs, Harry. You were looking for your cuffs,” he whispered, breathe ghosting against his ear as he pressed the small metal pieces into his palm.

Thomas knocked again, Harry swallowed as he turned, meeting predatory green eyes reminding him of the beast form he once had. “In 15, Thomas,” he said, voice already rough with arousal, Marcone smirked.

Summer Moon, Winter Sun

The summer moon, the winter sun.  
In summer nights, thee cast thy glow  
Above the rain, above dark clouds.  
Even when no mortal eye can spy  
Thy sliver light still beaming bright  
Behind the clouds in the lonely night sky.  
Thy reflect thee borrowed brilliance  
Set alight with illumination.  
As the sun lights up thy face  
From a far away, another dwelling  
In another world, he still reaches out  
As they admire thee, they admire him  
When thee shine, thee shine for him.  
Where no one loves his harsh summer glare  
He must await come winter’s day   
Where the mortals shunt thee   
And embrace his warmth.  
But still he touches thy face  
And thee still shine above the clouds  
If for no one in the cold winter night  
Than for the winter sun.


End file.
